Power and Poetry: Best Practices for High School Classrooms - Softcover

Poetry is one of the most powerful ways that people communicate their feelings. Jim Mahoney and Jerry Matovcik are going to prove to you that it can also be one of the most powerful ways to fully engage students in reading, writing, and analysis.

In Power and Poetry, veteran teachers Mahoney and Matovcik discard the scary parts of teaching poems - the symbolism and the technical language - and instead focus on poetry as a natural expression of individual curiosity, emotion, and observation. They show how, by gradually integrating poetry into the curriculum, you can help students uncover powerful, personal meaning in the form and lead them to creating poems of their own.

• helping students understand poems and generate content through journaling
• studying and writing poems intertextually
• forming poetry circles for literature study
• creating prompts that engage student poets
• holding a poetry reading to celebrate student voices

Power and Poetry will allay your fears about poetry and inspire you to give students a new way to find meaning on the page and in their world.

A former teacher and English department chair, Jim Mahoney has retired several times, having been called back to serve for one more season at different schools. He currently works with school districts on curriculum and staff development. The recipient of New York State English Council's Teacher of Excellence and Programs of Excellence awards, plus two CLASS awards for curriculum design, he has also been awarded three NEH Fellowships. He encourages readers to write to him at campyhits@aol.com.

Jerry Matovcik, a former English department chair, continues to teach English on the secondary and college level. In 2002, his writing portfolio program was recognized by the New York State Legislature as an exemplary program at sharingsuccess.org. He was selected as a potential reader for the "Favorite Poem" project initiated by Robert Pinsky, the former Poet Laureate of the United States. The recipient of the New York State English Council's Teacher of Excellence, he has also been awarded three NEH Fellowships. He also encourages readers to write to him at JMatovcik@aol.com.